How mark twain lived his life as an author during the late 1800s

However, in later years he would publish some works anonymously, and still others he declared could not be published until long after his death, on the largely erroneous assumption that his true views would scandalize the public.

It was a great success. His sister Margaret died of a fever when Clemens was not yet four years old; three years later his brother Benjamin died.

A son, Langdon, was born in Novemberbut the boy was frail and would die of diphtheria less than two years later. She died on June 5, Louis in before traveling to New York City to work at a large printing shop. The story was widely known, but it was new to Clemens, and he took notes for a literary representation of the tale.

In January Clemens watched a man die in the street after he had been shot by a local merchant; this incident provided the basis for the Boggs shooting in Huckleberry Finn. Cableboth to raise money for the company and to promote the sales of Huckleberry Finn.

It was the diminishing fortunes of the Clemens family that led them in to move 30 miles 50 km east from FloridaMissourito the Mississippi River port town of Hannibalwhere there were greater opportunities. Howells, who had known most of the important American literary figures of the 19th century and thought them to be more or less like one another, believed that Twain was unique.

In —07 he published selected chapters from his ongoing autobiography in the North American Review. That he did so in the voice and consciousness of a year-old boy, a character who shows the signs of having been trained to accept the cruel and indifferent attitudes of a slaveholding culturegives the novel its affecting power, which can elicit genuine sympathies in readers but can also generate controversy and debate and can affront those who find the book patronizing toward African Americans, if not perhaps much worse.

Some of his articles and sketches had appeared in New York papers, and he became the Nevada correspondent for the San Francisco Morning Call. Perhaps it is too much to claim, as some have, that Twain invented the American point of view in fiction, but that such a notion might be entertained indicates that his place in American literary culture is secure.

The originality of the longer works is often to be found more in their conception than in their sustained execution.

The trip abroad was fortuitous in another way. During his time in the East, which lasted until earlyhe read widely and took in the sights of these cities.

Clemens was suffering from rheumatism in his right arm, but he continued to write for magazines out of necessity. Those same adventures could be reenacted with his companions as well, and Clemens and his friends did play at being pirates, Robin Hoodand other fabled adventurers.

Instead, he saw a more immediate opportunity and persuaded the accomplished riverboat captain Horace Bixby to take him on as an apprentice. Later attended her funeral in Hannibal. He moved into his new house in Redding, Connecticut, in Juneand that too was a comfort.

The Nevada Territory was a rambunctious and violent place during the boom years of the Comstock Lode, from its discovery in to its peak production in the late s. Debts continued to mount, and the financial panic of made it difficult to borrow money.

At any rate, even though the worst of his financial worries were behind him, there was no particular reason for Clemens to be in a good mood.

His publishing company was floundering, and cash flow problems meant he was drawing on his royalties to provide capital for the business. He returned to Hannibal, where he joined the prosecessionist Marion Rangers, a ragtag lot of about a dozen men.

Because he was sickly, Clemens was often coddled, particularly by his mother, and he developed early the tendency to test her indulgence through mischief, offering only his good nature as bond for the domestic crimes he was apt to commit. She was violently ill inand for a time Clemens was allowed to see her for only five minutes a day.

Only Clara survived him. Palpable tokens of public approbation are the three honorary degrees conferred on Clemens in his last years—from Yale University infrom the University of Missouri inand, the one he most coveted, from Oxford University in The courtship dissolved in a misunderstanding, but she remained the remembered sweetheart of his youth.

At any rate, even though the worst of his financial worries were behind him, there was no particular reason for Clemens to be in a good mood. He met and fell in love with Laura Wright, eight years his junior.

Apprenticeships In the oldest Clemens boy, Orion, returned from St. Webster, and embarked on a four-month lecture tour with fellow author George W. It would be several years before this pen name would acquire the firmness of a full-fledged literary persona, however.

It was the diminishing fortunes of the Clemens family that led them in to move 30 miles 50 km east from FloridaMo.

One of the maxims from that novel jocularly expresses his point of view:Some of Twain’s best work during his late years was not fiction but polemical essays in which his earnestness was not in doubt: an essay against anti-Semitism, Concerning the Jews (); a denunciation of imperialism, To the Man Sitting in Darkness (); an essay on lynching, The United States of Lyncherdom (posthumously published in.

Mark Twain A Life Lived in a Rapidly Changing World: Samuel L. Clemens‚ As Twain’s books provide insight into the past‚ the events of his personal life further demonstrate his role as an eyewitness to history. Samuel L. Clemens, the future Mark Twain, was born when Halley’s Comet was in the skies.

He died during the comet’s return 74 years later.

In between, Clemens traveled the world and had many experiences as he passed from typesetter to river pilot, prospector, newspaper reporter, lecturer, author, publisher, businessman and family man. Mark Twain used the term "Gilded Age" to describe the late s in America, a time period marked by greed and corruption despite the glittering wealth on the surface.

He coined the term in his satirical novel published in titled, "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today." During this era, the United. Mark Twain: Mark Twain was a humorist, journalist, Late in his life, Twain reflected on this promise that became a curse: Some of Twain’s best work during his late years was not fiction but polemical essays in which his earnestness was not in doubt: an essay against anti-Semitism, “Concerning the Jews”.